Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Web Secret#203: 3 Exciting Things You Can Do on Twitter

I recently came across a blog post "Top 10 Exciting Things To Do on Twitter."

Here - in my opinion - are the three most exciting:


1. Find a job:
TwitJobSeach – TwitJobSearch pulls up Tweets that are only job-related and links to the underlying job posting.

TweetMyJobs – the largest Twitter job board in the world. It has 9,537 targeted job channels with open positions from 12,459 companies worldwide. You can post (and tweet) your resume and custom profile to thousands of recruiters and hiring managers.

2. Check your follows/find people:
Friend or Follow – Who’s not following you back on Twitter? Who are you not following back? Who are your mutual friends?

3. Tweet in another language:
TweetTranslate automatically translate tweets into over 40 languages.

Tweeting around the world!

How cool is that...

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Web Secret #202: Everything Is a Remix

Kirby Ferguson is the genius - in my opinion - who created a series of videos examining and deconstructing creativity and innovation in media and technology.

Initially, I came across "Everything Is a Remix: The Matrix," a thoroughly entertaining dissection of the popular movie.

That led me to his other projects, all of them remarkable. However, one video in particular, had the wow factor: "Everything is a Remix Part 3: the role of remixing creativity," (especially as it applies to technology.)

In part three of his series, Kirby argues that all new innovations in technology occur in one of the following ways: first we copy others, then we transform what others did, and finally we combine different ideas. Combining different ideas leads to further breakthroughs, but the biggest innovations occurs when we copy, transform AND combine, as happened with the Apple personal computer.

"Everything is a Remix Part 3: the role of remixing creativity."

Watch and wonder.


Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Web Secret #201: Letters of Note

This is the story of an Internet meandering.

I am fluent in French, so when there's a lull in the action, I like to click over to Google.fr news and get another perspective.

In February, I came across an article about a photograph from the 1930s which shows a crowd of people making the Nazi salute with the exception of one man.

The article had a link back to the Washington Post "August Landmesser, shipyard worker in Hamburg, refused to perform Nazi salute."

There was a link inside the last few lines of the Post article: "Much like last week’s renewed interest in an ex-slave’s 1865 letter to his master, the response to Landmesser’s photographic lesson speaks to an Internet audience hungry for stories of moral heroism," which sent me over to a blog called "Letters of Note."

After I read the remarkable letter from the ex-slave, that's where I stayed.

Letters of Note - correspondence deserving of a wider audience.


There are 661 letters cataloged in the blog's archive. Some of the best will soon be published in a book.

Enjoy.


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Web Secret #200: Thank U Internet

This is my 200th post.

I have written this blog, without missing a week, since August 2008.

In the world of blogging, posting for over three years is a relative rarity and a milestone.


I thought long and hard about this post.

A couple of months ago, the 1998 Alanis Morissette song "Thank U" was running through my head.

"Thank U" is about gratitude. In the video, Morissette stands naked and sings:

"...how bout grieving it all one at a time

thank you india
thank you terror
thank you disillusionment
thank you frailty
thank you consequence
thank you thank you silence..."


I am filled with gratitude that the Internet makes it possible for me to be closer to three family members, two of whom I never knew.

This post is for them.

To Betti Kliatschko, my mother's favorite great-aunt. One of six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust. Her name is recorded in the now online Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names. She is remembered.

To Jakob Schapiro, my maternal grand-father who died in 1942. He was a pioneer in the automobile industry who once owned 40% of Benz & Cie, (which eventually became Mercedes Benz.) Not only can I read about him in German Wikipedia, but I discovered that one of the companies he owned made the chassis of an early Rolls Royce. The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Shapiro-Schebera Skiff bears his name. One beautifully restored version was recently put up for auction, asking $1.2 million. He is remembered.

Finally, to George London, my father, famed opera singer. He is everywhere on the Internet, on YouTube, in books sold on Amazon, in the website for the foundation he created, and just this past year, in a documentary film. He is remembered.

Thank U Internet - it's personal.